Think fast! I'm sure you have heard that phrase at least once in your life, but have you ever understood what thinking fast is? Thinking fast, or reaction time, is the amount of time that passes between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of the response to that stimulus. For my experiment I wanted to know if the response to seeing a ball differed when considering the color of the ball. The colors that I decided to use were Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. Red, Green and Blue are the easiest colors to see because when a baby is born those are the first three colors the eyes see and process. Red and blue are also primary colors. I included yellow because it is the third primary color and it is a bright color that reflects light and I wanted to see if that made it easier to see and catch. This experiment was inspired by a similar experiment done by a student last year however my experiment was done with a blue background and in a controlled environment. To add another variable to this experiment I wanted to see if there was a correlation between the amount of years the test subject had been playing sports and the number of balls they caught.
Yellow Ball
Blue ball
Red Ball
Green Ball
Procedure
This is what the setup looked like. The test subject would be on the other side of the board facing left.
For my procedure I set up a ramp 126 cm long. I put the low end of the ramp 77cm off the ground and the high end 100cm off the ground. I set up the ramp in the hallway parallel to the consistent background of the blue lockers. There were also no distracting noises in the hall. Then I set up a board at the low end of the ramp to prevent the test subject from seeing the ball coming. Once I set up the ramp I asked one of my classmates to come into the hall. Before having them try to catch the ball I asked them if they played sports. If the answer was yes I asked what sport(s) and for how many years. After that I had them kneel facing the lockers at the low end of the ramp and look at a specific spot on the lockers. To make sure sight was the only sense they were using, I covered the ramp in paper towels to muffle the sound, and I had them wear ear muffs. Then, in a random order I rolled each ball 3 times and recorded if they caught them or not. After that I asked the subject if they found any of the balls easier or harder to see or catch.
Results
After testing 7 subjects and rolling each ball 21 times I came up with some clear data. In first with a total 18 catches and 3 drops was red which was caught 86% of the time. In 2nd with a total of 15 catches and 6 drops was yellow which was caught 71% of the time. In third with 9 catches and 12 drops was green which was caught 43% of the time. Finally last and, well, least with 7 catches and 14 drops was blue which was caught 33% of the time.
Here is a table that shows how many time each ball was caught in each test.
Test1
Test2
Test3
Test4
Test5
Test6
Test7
Blue
1
1
2
0
1
1
1
Green
1
0
1
2
2
1
2
Yellow
2
2
2
2
2
3
2
Red
3
2
2
2
3
3
3
Here are the T-tests which show a comparison of how many time each of the seven people caught one colored ball compared to how many times each person caught another colored ball.
These T-tests show that the data is pretty significant. As you can see from the Red-Blue test there is almost no chance of the blue ball being caught more than the red ball. There is also a very small chance of the blue ball being caught More than the yellow ball and The green ball being caught more than the yellow or red ball. However there is a pretty good chance that the blue ball will be caught more than the green ball which happened in Tests 2 and 3.
I also Found that The correlation between years of sports and number of balls caught was very low. In fact there was 0 correlation between the number of years that the test subject had played sports. The person who caught the least amount of balls had been playing sports for five years and the person who caught the most had been playing six years. One of my test subjects who hadn't played sports at all caught seven balls, two more than someone who had been playing sports for five years.
Here Is a table that shows the number of years the test subject had been playing sports and the number of balls they caught.
Test1
Test2
Test3
Test4
Test5
Test6
Test7
Number of years playing sports
0
5
10
6
4
3
6
Number of balls caught
7
5
7
6
8
7
9
Conclusions
Because of the blue background my hypothesis was that blue and green balls would be the hardest to see and therefore the hardest to catch. Judging by the results my hypothesis was correct. I also recorded that every test subject said the blue ball was the hardest to see which makes perfect sense because the blue ball blended in with the background of the blue lockers. In each test the test subject would take a longer amount of time to see the blue and green colored balls which gave them less time to react. It is important to remember that the reflexes of a person don’t change because of the color of the ball, but the amount of time between when they see the ball and when they have to react to it is less because there eyes aren’t stimulated as quickly. I also found that athletes were not any better at catching the balls than non-athlete. This result may have changed if I had done more tests with more experienced athletes. The results could have changed altogether if I had run more tests and I am almost certain that they would change if the color of the background changed. To add on to this experiment I could have used different colored and sized balls.
Does Being an Athlete Make it Easier to Catch Different Colored Balls
Table of Contents
Introduction
Think fast! I'm sure you have heard that phrase at least once in your life, but have you ever understood what thinking fast is? Thinking fast, or reaction time, is the amount of time that passes between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of the response to that stimulus. For my experiment I wanted to know if the response to seeing a ball differed when considering the color of the ball. The colors that I decided to use were Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. Red, Green and Blue are the easiest colors to see because when a baby is born those are the first three colors the eyes see and process. Red and blue are also primary colors. I included yellow because it is the third primary color and it is a bright color that reflects light and I wanted to see if that made it easier to see and catch. This experiment was inspired by a similar experiment done by a student last year however my experiment was done with a blue background and in a controlled environment. To add another variable to this experiment I wanted to see if there was a correlation between the amount of years the test subject had been playing sports and the number of balls they caught.
Procedure
For my procedure I set up a ramp 126 cm long. I put the low end of the ramp 77cm off the ground and the high end 100cm off the ground. I set up the ramp in the hallway parallel to the consistent background of the blue lockers. There were also no distracting noises in the hall. Then I set up a board at the low end of the ramp to prevent the test subject from seeing the ball coming. Once I set up the ramp I asked one of my classmates to come into the hall. Before having them try to catch the ball I asked them if they played sports. If the answer was yes I asked what sport(s) and for how many years. After that I had them kneel facing the lockers at the low end of the ramp and look at a specific spot on the lockers. To make sure sight was the only sense they were using, I covered the ramp in paper towels to muffle the sound, and I had them wear ear muffs. Then, in a random order I rolled each ball 3 times and recorded if they caught them or not. After that I asked the subject if they found any of the balls easier or harder to see or catch.
Results
After testing 7 subjects and rolling each ball 21 times I came up with some clear data. In first with a total 18 catches and 3 drops was red which was caught 86% of the time. In 2nd with a total of 15 catches and 6 drops was yellow which was caught 71% of the time. In third with 9 catches and 12 drops was green which was caught 43% of the time. Finally last and, well, least with 7 catches and 14 drops was blue which was caught 33% of the time.
Here is a table that shows how many time each ball was caught in each test.
Here are the T-tests which show a comparison of how many time each of the seven people caught one colored ball compared to how many times each person caught another colored ball.
Red-Green P=.0037741653
Red-Yellow P=.111685378
Red-Blue P=.00019711366
Green-Yellow P=.0254993774
Blue-Yellow P=.001267245
Blue-Green P=.4432587489
These T-tests show that the data is pretty significant. As you can see from the Red-Blue test there is almost no chance of the blue ball being caught more than the red ball. There is also a very small chance of the blue ball being caught More than the yellow ball and The green ball being caught more than the yellow or red ball. However there is a pretty good chance that the blue ball will be caught more than the green ball which happened in Tests 2 and 3.
I also Found that The correlation between years of sports and number of balls caught was very low. In fact there was 0 correlation between the number of years that the test subject had played sports. The person who caught the least amount of balls had been playing sports for five years and the person who caught the most had been playing six years. One of my test subjects who hadn't played sports at all caught seven balls, two more than someone who had been playing sports for five years.
Here Is a table that shows the number of years the test subject had been playing sports and the number of balls they caught.
Conclusions
Because of the blue background my hypothesis was that blue and green balls would be the hardest to see and therefore the hardest to catch. Judging by the results my hypothesis was correct. I also recorded that every test subject said the blue ball was the hardest to see which makes perfect sense because the blue ball blended in with the background of the blue lockers. In each test the test subject would take a longer amount of time to see the blue and green colored balls which gave them less time to react. It is important to remember that the reflexes of a person don’t change because of the color of the ball, but the amount of time between when they see the ball and when they have to react to it is less because there eyes aren’t stimulated as quickly. I also found that athletes were not any better at catching the balls than non-athlete. This result may have changed if I had done more tests with more experienced athletes. The results could have changed altogether if I had run more tests and I am almost certain that they would change if the color of the background changed. To add on to this experiment I could have used different colored and sized balls.
References
Reaction Timehttp://www.brianmac.co.uk/reaction.htm
What Color Does the Human Eye Identify The Easiesthttp://www.hondacivicforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62979&page=3
Human Benchmark, Reaction Time Statistics http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/stats.php
Lauren Flanagan, What are Primary Colors? http://interiordec.about.com/cs/faqsoncolor/f/faq_primarycol.htm
Ben, Does the color of a ball affect It's ability to be caught http://pisci.wikispaces.com/BallColorandReactions